3 Provinces agreement - "Die Kaap is weer Hollands"

In December 2003, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture and the SA Agri Academy entered into an agreement with Fair Trade Assistance in the Netherlands to secure EU market access for emerging farmers.

Giving further impetus to cooperation governance and to firmly establish a partnership project for agricultural development for the Western, Northern and Eastern Cape provinces which has a strong emphasis on imposing and expanding on our existing expertise and service delivery to black resource poor farmers in the three provinces, a delegation from these three provinces are currently visiting The Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

This morning the Northern and Eastern Cape joined the Western Cape when these provinces signed a similar agreement. These three provinces will now, with the aid and assistance of Fair Trade Assistance, have direct access to EU markets for certain products.

Fair Trade Assistance allows trade to be successful through:

• quality improvement,
• product development,
• technical training,
• market information, and;
• management- /market training.

Already South Africa is a dominant player on European Union markets within the framework of Fair Trade Assistance and its range of products to the EU: South Africa lists 3 products on the top 10 export products and 4 out of 5 in culinary products. This is a remarkable achievement for black farmers and entrepreneurs in South Africa.

Fair Trade Assistance through the historic agreement signed in Culemborg this morning will now allow these 3 provinces to share in its 20 million Euro turnover.

With products such as wine, vinegar, pineapples, rooibos- and honeybush teas, dried fruit, mustard and sauces these 3 provinces and its emerging farmers will become part of the chain of 80 suppliers, 25 countries, 2 500 products and 250 000 producers delivering to EU markets with the aid of Fair Trade Assistance.

With this historic agreement signed these 3 provinces have joined hands in establishing a joint venture, which will benefit the Cape as a whole and the country in general.

Enquiries: Jan Bosman
Cell: 083 775 5312